Order of the Patriotic War 1st class, Type 2 Variation 2,
#306931, with a document, awarded on 8 November 1943 to
Mikhail Olkhovskiy.

Order of the Patriotic War 1st class, Type 2 Variation 2,
#306931, with a document, awarded on 8 November 1943 to
Mikhail Olkhovskiy.

In solid gold (14 K), sterling silver and enamels; 46.3 mm
tall x 43.5 mm wide; weighs 31.5 g without screw plate.
This
version features a two-line mint mark. The spokes on the
reverse of the golden sunburst are at 2, 6 and 10 o'clock
positions.

The order is in very fine condition. There are shallow
surface chips and flakes near the lower edge of the lower
right arm. None of them however penetrate to the silver,
and
they are therefore not very detractive. The enamel is
almost
perfectly preserved otherwise having only a few microscopic
contact marks elsewhere and showing beautiful luster. The
details of the starburst, rifle and sword are extremely
crisp. The screw post is full length, approx. 12 mm long
measured from the reverse of the gold starburst. Comes with
original screw plate of late war - early post-war type.

The order booklet is of late 1950s issue. It shows only a
single decoration, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st cl.,
with its serial number and award decree (Decree #1082 of
the
18th Army). Note that the date of the decree shown as
8.01.1943 is incorrect, a clerical error: it should have
been "8.11.1943" as evident from the Russian archival
documents.
The document is in very good to excellent condition. The
cover shows only minimal soiling to the edges. The binding
is tight, and the gold state seal and writing on the cover
are nice and bright. The internal pages have faint water
stains at the bottom, otherwise completely intact and
clean.

It is interesting to see that both the award and document
were delivered to the recipient long after the war, in late
1950s - a clear case of what Russians usually refer to as
nagrada nashla geroya i.e. "the award found the
hero". Situations like this were not particularly uncommon:
the paperwork was often lost or misplaced in the chaos of
war, and many of the award recipients only discovered that
they had been decorated years later, sometimes by chance.

Mikhail Olkhovskiy joined the Red Army in 1940, at the age
of 19. He fought in the Patriotic War from 1942, and by
late
1943, had been wounded in combat twice. On 1 November 1943,
Guards Lt. Olkhovskiy took part in the amphibious assault
at
Eltigen (south of Kerch in Crimea) as a platoon commander
with the 142nd Naval Infantry Battalion, 255th Taman Naval
Rifle Brigade, 18th Army.

Following the audacious and extremely costly attack, a
small
patch of land captured by the Soviet marines soon became
completely isolated by the Germans who enjoyed immense
superiority in men and weapons. Nevertheless, the naval
infantrymen held off for 36 days before breaking out of the
encirclement. Then they made a forced march to Kerch,
captured a part of the city with its commanding mountain,
established a beachhead, and held it until they were
finally
picked up on Nov. 25 by warships of the Soviet Black Sea
Fleet. Perhaps unsuccessful in purely tactical sense, the
Eltigen operation was a morale booster and gained a
tremendous amount of publicity in Russia. It is still
considered legendary there, an important part of the
country's Naval Infantry lore.

Olkhovsky showed himself to best advantage on the very
first
day of the operation. According to the subsequent award
commendation, his platoon was the first to storm the beach
where it boldly engaged the numerically superior enemy.
Olkhovsky killed six Nazi soldiers with his submachine gun,
while all men of his platoon "fought like lions, not
sparing
their lives for the beloved Motherland". The platoon
destroyed five machine gun nests and captured several enemy
dugouts.

The recommendation to award Olkhovskiy with an Order of the
Patriotic War was typed on 7 November; on the following
day,
it was signed by his brigade commander Col. Kharichev (who
did not take part in the landing). At that point, the
operation was yet unfolding and the future fate of its
participants looked very bleak. Nevertheless, the naval
infantrymen such as Olkhovskiy had already demonstrated
exceptional heroism in the initial action at Eltigen, and
their assault had been widely publicized by the Soviet
press. Perhaps for that reason - and in deviation from the
previous Soviet practice - high decorations including some
Hero Stars were bestowed on a number of the members of the
assault force long before the operation was over. Many of
them of course didn't live to receive their awards, but
Olkhovskiy was one of the lucky few who survived.

Olkhovskiy apparently was never awarded with any other
combat decorations beside the 1943 Order of the Patriotic
War. We currently have no information on his service beyond
that point, but further research may be worthwhile.

Research Materials: photocopy of the award
commendation;
copy of the relevant pages (pp. 270-295) about the Kerch-
Eltigen operation in the Russian language book "Black Sea
Sailors in the Great Patriotic War" by G. Vaneev (1978).
Detailed information about the 255th Naval Rifle Brigade
can
be found in Vol. VII "Red Death" of the Charles
Sharp's WW2 Soviet Order of Battle series.